The Sawyer Soundscape

Posted by Mike Matessino
on
July 18, 2017

The 1973 musical adaptation of Tom Sawyer, produced by Arthur P. Jacobs and presented by Reader’s Digest, was originally released
in 70mm six-track sound with an Overture and Exit Music. For the Twilight Time
Blu-Ray release I oversaw the efforts to present the film as close to that
original version as possible. While the film had a widescreen LaserDisc release
in the 1990s with stereo sound, subsequent VHS and DVD releases as well as
versions prepared for broadcast eliminated the Overture and Exit Music, while
an earlier DVD offered only “pan/scan” picture and no multichannel sound.
There was much work to do. The high-definition master provided by MGM restored
the Panavision film’s 2.35:1 picture quality beautifully, but like earlier
releases only contained 2-channel audio and was missing the musical bookends.
TT undertook the effort to transfer the original 65mm 6-track mag, which did
contain the Overture and Exit Music. After conforming the audio to the new
master and performing the requisite cleanup, it then needed to be repurposed
for the current 5.1 format.

(Technobabble alert!) Six-channel audio from the days of
70mm presentations was configured with five channels across the screen and one
surround channel. In some instances (such as the label’s previous release of
1960’s Exodus), the two extra
front channels (sometimes referred to as “baby boom”) were created by combining
Left+Center and Right+Center, then applying offset to one and phase inversion
to the other, resulting in a 5-channel spread that would fill out a larger
cinema. In cases like that, the two extra channels can simply be dropped when a
5.1. mix is created. But for many films, the five front channels each contained
distinctive information. Such was the case with TomSawyer. As this situation has cropped up in
recent years, formulas have been developed whereby the two added front channels
are distributed to the Left-Center-Right signals in such a way that the
resulting “image” closely matches the original spread of the five channels. In
other words, when done properly, the information from those two added channels
will appear to emerge from where those extra speakers would have been placed.

Tom Sawyer
on Blu-Ray has both 4.0 and 5.1 audio because as a consequence of this work
with the original 6-track sound, I discovered that the surround track was
actually used very little. Even most of the songs had little or no surround
information. The 4.0 audio on the disc therefore presents the audio exactly as in
1973 and is effectively what would have been heard at 70mm screenings. But the
enhanced 5.1 audio is the result of an effort to take things further for an
updated presentation.

This was a happy result of TT’s commitment to Isolated Music
Tracks. For Tom Sawyer,
16-track 2-inch master tapes created for the soundtrack album were available,
along with a monaural dialogue-music-and effects stems – the music component of
which could be utilized for surround placement. I used Fiddler on the Roof
(1971) as reference, as that film was from the same era and studio and also
featured a score adapted by the great John Williams (for which he won his first
Oscar® — and was likewise also nominated for Tom Sawyer). The result is a richer and more enveloping
musical experience, with sound effects and LFE enhancement also incorporated
where this seemed appropriate.

For the Overture and Exit Music, I engaged longtime
colleague Daren Dochterman to create screen graphics in a font and style matching
the credits on the film. Additionally, he recreated the blue Reader’s Digest card that appeared on
the film initially as the Exit Music began. When all of this work was completed
– including the Isolated Music Track, which presents the songs without the vocals
– I worked with our authoring facility in laying out the disc’s functionality
so that viewers would have the option of playing the movie with or without the
musical bookends. This involved laying in the graphics, establishing the data
stream jumping points, and determining how this would affect (or be affected
by) the isolated music and commentary tracks. There is a lot happening on this
disc! The restoration of the Overture that opens the companion feature Huckleberry
Finn (1974) was similarly done as well.

Finally, we also at last have the bonus features that haven’t been presented
since Tom Sawyer’s LaserDisc debut. Among these is rehearsal footage
with screenwriters/songwriters Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman and John
Williams making all of the musical goodness that TT’s Blu-Ray has now served up,
plus a vintage River Song Featurette
and an Audio Commentary with both Shermans and director Don Taylor. There’s
only one word for how it feels to have worked on this release of the Tom
Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn Double-Feature Blu-ray: gratifaction! Feel it yourself – with or without paintbrush in hand –
when it sails homeward this week.